where she describes her time in the psychiatric hospital, McLean Hospital, in Massachusetts. She begins her story by questioning how it is that she ended up in the hospital. She also describes mental illness as a parallel universe and that people gradually catch glimpse of this universe before they fully enter this new world. The novel is not told in a sequential storyline, but rather is a series of events that happen during Kaysen’s time in McLean. It all started when she visited a psychiatrist
cab and sends her off to the psychiatric ward at McLean Hospital. In the cab, she doesn’t put up a fight or try and escape and once she arrives at the hospital, she signs herself in because she is of age. Even before then, while she was still in the therapists’ office she showed no sign of struggling against the force that was her doctor. Instead she willingly accepted the fact that she was tired and to go then rather than on Friday to the hospital. This passiveness is a dominant characteristic of
Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted took place during the 1960s, when the Vietnam War occurred amidst with many civil rights movements happening. Kaysen describes how and why she ended up in the hospital, being identified with Borderline Personality Disorder. Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Wurtzel, and Susanna Kaysen all use their own experiences from mental institutions, their attempted suicides as symbols, and their feelings of depression as a common
vulnerability. In this memoir, Kaysen details her existence as a psychiatric patient diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in a mental institution where time seems circular alongside a parallel universe where time is normally linear. The hospital itself becomes a paradoxical representation of both strict confinement and ultimate personal freedom. Through Kaysen's short, blunt phrase-like sentences, she forcefully impresses the shocking conditions she endured on the memory of her readers.
Literature is the superlative resource when one is attempting to comprehend or fathom how society has transformed over the centuries. Many written works—whether fictional or nonfictional—express the views of gender roles and societies’ expectations. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is an exemplary novel that explores these issues. Ester Greenwood was portrayed the superficial and oppressive values of the mid-twentieth century American society through her experiences of gender inequalities and social conformities
Sylvia Plath Research Paper Title The Bell Jar "place[s] [the] turbulent months[of an adolescent’s life] in[to] mature perspective" (Hall, 30). In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses parallelism, stream of consciousness, the motif of renewal and rebirth, symbolism of the boundary-driven entrapped mentally ill, and auto-biographical details to epitomize the mental downfall of protagonist, Esther Greenwood. Plath also explores the idea of how grave these timeless and poignant issues can affect a fragile
The Bell Jar People's lives are shaped through their success and failure in their personal relationships with each other. The author Sylvia Plath demonstrates this in the novel, The Bell Jar. This is the direct result of the loss of support from a loved one, the lack of support and encouragement, and lack of self confidence and insecurity in Esther's life in the The Bell Jar. It was shaped through her success and failures in her personal relationships between others and herself. Through life
The Bell Jar is an autobiographical account of major events in Plath’s life. The book is a purgative expression of Plath’s solitary existence. It is the journey of Esther (fictional name of Plath) who had hard time in gathering courage to live life on her own terms. She had to fight against the ingrained beliefs, norms and expectations that society had woven into her. All through her life, Esther struggled to resolve the dichotomy between her real self and the ideal self that she was expected to
In spite of The Bell Jar being written about a woman named Esther, Sylvia Plath’s true personality can be seen throughout the novel as she writes about herself using the alias, Esther, to hide her emotions with the pressures that she faces on a day-to-day basis. Plath’s self-absorbed behavior is seen when a character refers to Esther, Plath’s alias, as wanting “‘to be everything’”. Plath’s narcissistic personality is shown as she is unable to decide for herself to the extent that she would rather
How does the author's treatment of relationships effect the characterisation of the heroines in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Quicksand by Nella Larsen? Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know ============================== How does the author's treatment of relationships effect the characterisation of the heroines in "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and "Quicksand" by Nella Larsen? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This essay will compare the ways in which
Sylvia Plath’s writing is often associated with dark, violent, and almost disturbing imagery and themes, and her first and only novel, The Bell Jar, is no exception to this. The Bell Jar follows the story of Esther Greenwood, a young woman living in New York City, and her struggles with mental illness throughout her life. Esther is more than a fictional character; her story so closely mimics Plath’s own life – so much so that The Bell Jar is considered to be semi-autobiographical by most. Everything
Gordon’s hospital after having electroshock therapy, or ECT, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (Mayo Clinic). The light she sees upon receiving the ECT was blue, and she recalls the light she saw when she was shocked by the lamp was blue as well. When discussing
Societal Currents in the 1950s: The Critique of Social Issues in The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye In the 1950s, the era of censorship and conformity had begun; deviations from social norms and roles were frowned upon, and it was common for information to be concealed from the public for their own good, while those who suffered from illnesses outside the normal realm of medicine were labeled insane and hidden away. The Bell Jar focuses on the life of Esther Greenwood, a young woman who, while
The book “The Bell Jar” by Silvia Plath was different from other books assigned through-out my time at high school. Most of the other books, including for example “Of Mice and Men”, Lord of the Flies”, and “The Heart of darkness” were stories about mostly men and how they all turned against each other in some way and acted like animals instead of humans, and in the end of all of them someone dies. The book “The Bell Jar” though is without a doubt my favorite so far because it is about a female and
What is in the spring of your life if the spring of a life refers to your first twenty years in your life? The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel by Silvia Plath, describes Esther Greenwood’s harsh spring of her life. Narrating in the first person, Esther tells her experience of a mental breakdown in a descriptive language, helping the readers visualize what she sees and feel her emotions. The novel takes place in New York City and Boston during the early 1950s when women’s roles were limited
By analytically digesting the exquisite syntax of the sublimely crafted novel, “The Bell Jar”, one immediately notices Sylvia Plath’s dreary narrative tone, which acts as a somber cloud that hovers over the reader's perspective of the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, consistently throughout the novel. These elements of literary contexts, such as diction and literary shifts, morph the reader’s collective image of Esther and fractures the reader’s reflection of the encompassing world. As the reader journeys
“The Bell Jar” is a piece written by Sylvia Plath, and published under a pseudonym in 1963. In this novel, Plath expresses much of her internal conflict with society, and how she related to the gender roles of that time. The story, which many regard as autobiographical, awoke the interest of many interdisciplinary professionals when it overlapped the real life events that accompanied its publication. Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1963, just a few days before the novel’s publication, after having
A Second Copy of Life “My heroine would be myself, only in disguise…There were six letters in Esther, too. It seemed a lucky thing.” In Sylvia Plath’s, The Bell Jar, there were many examples of things that correlated between Esther Greenwood and Sylvia Plath’s lives. For example, the characters were drawn together by the intention they both had of killing themselves, their risk factors, the events that pushed them to suicidal thoughts, and the once–and–for–all decision of life or death. Esther’s
Jar is a first person account from a young woman named Esther Greenwood who suffers a psychological meltdown. Throughout the novel, she moves back and forth through time as she remembers the events that lead to her being released from a psychiatric hospital. Through research, one may infer that the novel is written from events in Plath’s past. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar coveys Plath’s last attempt to reconcile with her demons. “Esther Greenwood, the narrator of The Bell Jar, encounters many of
Plath refers to her personal life. Esther Greenwood plays Plath's character in the novel. Like the character in the novel Esther, Plath shows reflections of her mental breakdown. She also tells how Esther attempted suicide and is admitted into a hospital which is another similarity between the writer and character. Plath does not want her mother knowing about this novel. It was an autobiography so it is published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Her mother wants Plath to attend college in case